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Who Were the Nephilim?

The Nephilim (Hebrew:
נפלים,
Nefilīm) were a race that came to dominate the
antediluvian (pre-flood) world, and are referred to in
the
Bible as the heroes of old, men of renown. They
were reportedly the children born to the "Sons
of God" by the "daughters of men", and are
described as giants. It is also most important to note that
they are mentioned almost simultaneous to God's statement
that He would destroy the earth
by flood, and it seems from this association that their
effect upon mankind was one of the primary justifications
that brought the destruction.

When men began to increase in number
on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons
of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and
they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said,
"My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is
mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also
afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of
men and had children by them. They were the heroes of
old, men of renown. The LORD saw how great man's
wickedness on the earth had become, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man
on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the
LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created,
from the face of the earth—men and animals, and
creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the
air—for I am grieved that I have made them." -

"Nephilim" is rendered fallen,
or possibly feller: a tyrant or bully. Several English
translations, such as the

King James Version rendered the word "giants". In the
Greek Septuagint the word "nephilim" was also translated as
"gigantes" (gigantic). This translation is undoubtedly used
because the Nephilim later became known as giants to the
ancient
Hebrews, as illustrated by the manner in which they were
referenced when the Israelite spies were sent into
Canaan (Numbers
13:33 ).[1]

Contents

The Sons of
God

It is unclear what the Sons of God
were, but they are distinguished from the daughters of
men. The most obvious interpretation is that the
Nephilim were a
hybrid race between two distinct beings. There are at
least three schools of thought regarding the Sons of God.

The older view, held nearly
unanimously by ancient writers prior to
Augustine of Hippo, is that the Nephilim were a
hybrid race between certain fallen angels, called the
Benei Ha'Elohim ("Sons of God") or The Watchers
in extra-Biblical traditions, and human women. While there
has always been a minority of churchmen who followed this
view, it has been promoted recently by popular writers such
as Stephen Quayle [2].

The only obvious and natural
meaning without such clarification is that these
beings were sons of God, rather than of men, because
they had been created, not born. Such a description,
of course, would apply only to Adam (Luke 3:38) and
to the angels, whom God had directly created (Psalm
148:2, 5; Psalm 104:4; Colossians 1:16). The actual
phrase bene elohim is used three other times, all in
the very ancient book of Job (1:6; 2:1; 38:7). There
is no doubt at all that, in these passages, the
meaning applies exclusively to the angels. A very
similar form (bar elohim) is used in Daniel 3:25,
and also refers either to an angel or to a theophany.
The term “sons of the mighty” (bene elim) is used in
Psalm 29:1 and also Psalm 89:6, and again refers to
angels. Thus, there seems no reasonable doubt that,
in so far as the language itself is concerned, the
intent of the writer was to convey the thought of
angels - fallen angels, no doubt, since they were
acting in opposition to God’s will.[3]

”

The more recent view which has been
the majority position in the church since
St. Augustine in the fourth century is that the Sons
of God refers to the god-fearing line of
Seth;
and the daughters of men refers to the daughters of
the unbelieving line of Cain. Variations on this theme
include the idea, proposed by Meredith Kline, that the
Sons of God were kings or priests who took any woman
they chose to be their wife.

Still others hold that the Sons of
God were other created men. It is argued that the
Bible
does not describe every person that was created, but only
key individuals or situations are included within the text.
Those holding to this position call into question the origin
of
Cain's wife or those whom he feared would kill him
Genesis 4:14-17 . However, this view falls into conflict
with Genesis, which states that Eve is the mother of all
the living.

After the
Flood

In
Genesis 6 , where the global flood is described, it
states that the Nephilim were also on the Earth afterward.
Many therefore, assume that many of the descriptions of
giants in the Bible are references to Nephilim
bloodlines. However, the only specific mention of Nephilim
on the earth after the flood is part of the bad report from
the spies in
Numbers 13:33 , a report that is called "bad" (or
"evil") as in an unreliable source.

There were giants “also after
that,” in the days of the Canaanites, and these were
likewise known as, among other things, the Nephilim
(Numbers 13:33). Humanly speaking, they were
descended from Anak, and so were also known as the
Anakim. These people were, of course, known to Moses
and it was probably he who editorially inserted the
phrase “and also after that” into Noah’s original
record here in Genesis 6:4. Moses probably also
inserted the information that these were the “mighty
men of old, men of renown,” men whose exploits of
strength and violence had made them famous in song
and fable in all nations in the ages following the
Flood. To rebellious men of later times, they were
revered as great heroes; but in God’s sight they
were merely ungodly men of violence and evil.[4]

”

Several tribes are encountered in the
campaign of the Five Kings in Abraham's day that some argue
might be Nephilim or hybrids of Nephilim. They are described
as having become several tribes occupying the lands around
the Valley of Siddim (Dead
Sea) and evidently intermixed with the Canaanites.

Genesis 14 and
Deuteronomy 2 name these tribes as the Rephaim
("titans", children of "Rapha"), Zuzim or Zamzummim
("terrible ones"), Emim, Horites, and Anakim ("crushing
tyrants"). The tribe of the Anakim are directly connected
with the Nephilim in the false report of the spies described
in (Numbers
13:33 ). The context of the passages suggest that the
other tribes of giants were relatives of the Anakim or other
lines of Nephilim, particularly the Rephaim whose giant
descendant is described as living in Gath along with the
Anakim Goliath and Lahmi (see below). The Rephaim are giants
(in fact these peoples are generally described as being tall
or large) and seem to have been thus matched with the
Nephilim based on the English rendering of "giants"
in Genesis 6.

The tribe of the Anakim were descended
from a giant named Anak, who was a son or grandson of a
giant named "Arba", from which the ancient city of Hebron
was originally called "Kiriath Arba" or "The City of Arba"
because "Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim"[5].
This tribe was so tall, that the weak-kneed spies reported,
"we are like grasshoppers to them."

Scripture describes how the tribes of
giants were fought and destroyed by the tribes of normal men
who replaced them, including the Israelites. Moses killed
Og, king of the Rehpaim who lived on the Golan heights near
Mt. Hermon. Og had a bed nine cubits long (13.5 to 15.5
feet, depending on which cubit was used) and was called
"last of the remnant of the giants"[6].
Og may be the source of the word "ogre" in the English
language.

Joshua drove the three remaining sons
of Anak out of Hebron in his first campaignm. They evidently
reoccupied the city of Hebron while Joshua was waging his
campaign against Canaanite cities in the North. Caleb later
retook Hebron and killed the three giants[7].

Later David and Saul fought a remnant
of smaller giants who had taken refuge in the Philistine
city of Gath. They included Goliath, who was about nine feet
tall, and his brother Lahmi "whose spear had a shaft like a
weaver's rod". The last of the Gittite giants was slain, "In
still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a
huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each
foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha"[8].

The last Scriptural reference to the
giants may be
Isaiah 45:14 , which prophecies that Sabean "men of
stature" will become slaves in chains of the redeemed
Israelites.

The characteristics of these tribes
described in Scripture:

Their height was two or three
times the height of normal men.

They were associated with some
kind of unholy intermixing before the Flood.

They were closely associated with
the wicked Canaanites after the Flood.

In one case they are described as
having polydactyly (extra fingers and toes).

Unlike the Canaanites, there are
no examples of Nephilim who became followers of God.

Apocryphal references

The Nephilim are described in great
detail in the
Book of Jubilees and
Book of Enoch. Both of these books have been
traditionally rejected as apocryphal by the European Church.
However, they were both considered canonical by the Ethiopic
Church from the time of Christ until today, and the Book of
Enoch was quoted in the Biblical
Epistle of Jude.

Jubilees has the following to say
about the sons of God and the Nephilim:

"And in the second week of the
tenth jubilee [449-55 A.M.] Mahalalel took unto
him to wife Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter
of his father's brother, and she bare him a son in the
third week in the sixth year, [461 A.M.] and he
called his name Jared, for in his days the angels of the
Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the
Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men,
and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the
earth." -
Jubilees 4:15

"And it came to pass when the
children of men began to multiply on the face of the
earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels
of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that
they were beautiful to look upon; and they took
themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare
unto them sons and they were giants. And lawlessness
increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way,
alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything
that walks on the earth -all of them corrupted their
ways and their orders, and they began to devour each
other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every
imagination of the thoughts of all men (was) thus evil
continually. And God looked upon the earth, and behold
it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders,
and all that were upon the earth had wrought all manner
of evil before His eyes. And He said that He would
destroy man and all flesh upon the face of the earth
which He had created. But Noah found grace before the
eyes of the Lord. And against the angels whom He had
sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He
gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion,
and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth,
and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are
(kept) separate. And against their sons went forth a
command from before His face that they should be smitten
with the sword, and be removed from under heaven. And He
said 'My spirit shall not always abide on man; for they
also are flesh and their days shall be one hundred and
twenty years'. And He sent His sword into their midst
that each should slay his neighbour, and they began to
slay each other till they all fell by the sword and were
destroyed from the earth." -
Jubilees 5:1-8

The Book of Enoch has the following to
say about them:

"It happened after the sons of
men had multiplied in those days, that daughters were
born to them, elegant and beautiful. And when the
angels, the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became
enamoured of them, saying to each other, Come, let us
select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and
let us beget children. Then their leader Samyaza said to
them; I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the
performance of this enterprise; And that I alone shall
suffer for so grievous a crime.

But they answered him and
said; We all swear;

And bind ourselves by mutual
execrations, that we will not change our intention, but
execute our projected undertaking. Then they swore all
together, and all bound themselves by mutual
execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who
descended upon Ardis, which is the top of mount Armon.

That mountain therefore was
called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound
themselves by mutual execrations. [Mt. Armon, or Mt.
Hermon, derives its name from the Hebrew word herem,
a curse.]

These are the names of their
chiefs: Samyaza, who was their leader, Urakabarameel,
Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Saraknyal,
Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel,
Ertael, Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects
of the two hundred angels, and the remainder were all
with them.

Then they took wives, each
choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and
with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery,
incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.

And the women conceiving
brought forth giants,

Whose stature was each three
hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of
men produced; until it became impossible to feed them;
When they turned themselves against men, in order to
devour them; And began to injure birds, beasts,
reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after
another, and to drink their blood. Their flesh one after
another. [Or, "one another’s flesh." R.H. Charles
notes that this phrase may refer to the destruction of
one class of giants by another.]

Then the earth reproved the
unrighteous.

Moreover Azazyel taught men to
make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the
fabrication of mirrors, and the workmanship of bracelets
and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the
eyebrows, the use of stones of every valuable and select
kind, and all sorts of dyes, so that the world became
altered.

Impiety increased; fornication
multiplied; and they transgressed and corrupted all
their ways.

Amazarak taught all the
sorcerers, and dividers of roots: Armers taught the
solution of sorcery; Barkayal taught the observers of
the stars, Akibeel taught signs; Tamiel taught
astronomy; And Asaradel taught the motion of the moon,

And men, being destroyed,
cried out; and their voice reached to heaven." -
Enoch 6-7.

Controversies

Some argue that the Sons of God
could not be angels because:

A major theme of the Old
Testament is the negative outcome of believers
intermarrying with unbelievers.

Angels are spiritual beings, and
therefore not reproductively compatible with human
women.

Advocates of the Angel-hybrid position
hold that:

Angels are recorded on two
occasions in Scripture as eating food, therefore they
have some ability to interact with the material world.

Angels can at times be
indistinguishable from human beings, and "some have
entertained angels unawares," (Hebrews 13:2)

The sexual immorality of Sodom
and Gommorah is described as "likewise" in comparison to
the actions of the angels that "left their proper
dwelling" and that Jesus has chained in darkness until
Judgment(Jude 6 & 7).

We really don't know what angels
can and cannot do, as we lack the ability to capture and
study them, and Scripture says little about them.

The question should be decided by
the context and evidence rather than a preconceived idea
about the nature of angels.

The Augustinian position fails to
explain the production of gigantic offspring from the
union of believers and unbelievers.

The unanimous position of Jewish
and heathen authors prior to Philo of Alexandria is that
the angels came down and sired children with women.